“Jude Law has settled a breach of privacy action with Hello! magazine, with the magazine agreeing to pay £9,500 in damages and undertaking not to publish any pictures of the Alfie star with his children until they are 18.”

“Former care home manager Rachel Baker was today found not guilty of murdering two of her elderly residents. Baker, 44, was accused of murdering Frances Hay and Lucy Cox at Parkfields Residential Care Home in Butleigh, Somerset. She was cleared of the murder charges and an attempted murder charge involving Mrs Hay by a jury at Bristol Crown Court today.”

“The prosecution were not entitled to apply for leave to appeal against a terminating ruling made by a judge in a Crown Court on a trial on indictment, unless it had complied with the mandatory requirements of s 58(4) and (8) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, following the making of the ruling, of informing the court that it intended to appeal or requesting an adjournment to consider such an appeal and, before or at that time, informing the court that it agreed that the defendant should be acquitted if leave to appeal was not obtained or the appeal was abandoned before being determined.”

“There was a public interest in issues such as the status, relevance and application of policy documents of general application emerging from the Revenue and Customs Commissioners, or any government department, being resolved in the Administrative Court, since it was the court with expertise in that area.”

“Guidance for county courts hearing applications for possession orders by local authority landlords of non-secure tenancies where the occupier, being an introductory tenant or a homeless person housed by the local authority, sought to challenge the local authority’s decision to recover possession as an improper exercise of its powers at common law on the ground that it was a decision that no reasonable person would consider justifiable.”

“Where, before the coming into force of the Companies Act 2006, a corporate tenant served notice, pursuant to s 13 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, seeking to exercise a statutory right to acquire the applicable freehold, it was required, for the notice to be valid, to affix its corporate seal, or to supply the signature of two directors or a director and the company secretary.”

“The psychological effect of such works as gate piers set across a public footpath, so as to denote private property, was relevant when deciding whether those works amounted to a significant obstruction of the highway so that an order might be required for their removal by the local highway authority.”

“Plans for compulsory sex education in schools have been dropped in the pre-election ‘wash up’ after being blocked by the Tories. The controversial measure would have ensured every 15-year-old had at least one year of sex education lessons. It was part of Ed Balls’ Children, Schools and Families Bill, but was shelved today in the last-minute rush to get legislation through before the election.”

“The Bar Council and Criminal Bar Association have today issued a joint response to the Ministry of Justice Consultation ‘Legal Aid: Reforming Advocates Graduated Fees.’ The response is available below, as is the letter from Bindmans sent on our behalf to the Treasury Solicitors.”